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The head of Libya’s armed forces and four other high ranking military officials died late Tuesday when their business jet crashed shortly after taking off from Ankara, officials in Turkey’s capital and Tripoli said.The wreckage of their Falcon 50 aircraft was located by Turkish security personnel in the Haymana district near Ankara, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said. Three crew members were also killed.Libya’s Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said on his Facebook page: “It is with deep sadness and great sorrow that we learnt of the death of the Libyan army’s chief of general staff, Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Haddad.”Haddad earlier Tuesday held talks in Ankara with Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler, and his Turkish counterpart, Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, and was returning to Tripoli.Yerlikaya said on X that Haddad’s jet took off from Ankara’s Esenboga airport at 1710 GMT, and “contact was lost” 42 minutes later.The aircraft issued an emergency landing notification near Haymana — 74 kilometres (45 miles) from Ankara — but contact could not be reestablished, the minister said. A senior Turkish official said the plane requested an emergency landing because of electrical failure 16 minutes after it took off. The jet carried eight passengers including Haddad, four members of his entourage and three crew members “reported an emergency to the air traffic control centre due to an electrical failure, asking for an emergency landing,” Burhanettin Duran, head of the presidency’s communications directorate, said on X. Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the incident. -‘Like a bomb’-Several Turkish media outlets broadcast images showing the sky lit up by an explosion not far from the location where the aircraft sent a signal.Burhan Cicek, a local in Haymana, recalled the moment when the plane crashed. “I heard a big sound of explosion. It was like a bomb,” he told AFP. Libya’s ambassador to Ankara was also at the site. Walid Ellafi, Libyan minister of state for communication and political affairs, told local television channel Libya al-Ahrar that the Turkish government informed his government of the incident. “We received a call from the Turkish authorities immediately after the incident, reporting that contact with the aircraft had been lost,” the minister said. “All contact with the aircraft was lost about half an hour after takeoff from Ankara airport due to a technical problem,” he said. “We are awaiting the conclusions of the Turkish investigation, and it appears that the plane crashed.”The minister said the others on the aircraft were Haddad’s advisor, Mohammed Al-Assawi, as well as Major General Al-Fitouri Ghraibil, Major General Mohammed Jumaa, and their escort, Mohammed Al-Mahjoub.Haddad had been the army’s chief of general staff since August 2020 and was appointed by then-prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj.Libya is split between a UN-recognised government in Tripoli, led by Dbeibah, and commander Khalifa Haftar’s administration in the east.The North African country has been divided since a NATO-backed revolt toppled and killed longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.Turkey has close ties with the UN-backed government in Tripoli, to which it provides economic and military support and there have been frequent visits between both sides. But Ankara has recently also reached out to the rival administration in the east, with the head of Turkey’s intelligence agency, Ibrahim Kalin, meeting with Haftar in Benghazi in August.burs-fo/gv

London police on Tuesday arrested Swedish activist Greta Thunberg at a demonstration in support of pro-Palestinian hunger strikers, Palestinian campaign groups said.Thunberg’s arrest makes her the highest profile person to be detained by police since the government banned the Palestine Action group under anti-terror laws.Prisoners for Palestine, which organised the protest, said in a statement that Thunberg was arrested under the UK Terrorism Act. Thunberg, 22, was holding a sign reading: “I support the Palestine Action prisoners. I oppose genocide.”City of London Police said several people were arrested.They did not directly name Thunberg, but said “a 22-year-old woman… has been arrested for displaying an item (in this case a placard) in support of a proscribed organisation (in this case Palestine Action) contrary to Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000”.Hours later, police said she was released on bail.Police said another three people were arrested at the protest, at a building in London’s financial quarter, on suspicion of criminal damage.The three were detained after “hammers and red paint were used to damage a building” and they glued themselves to fixtures nearby, police said. Prisoners for Palestine said its protest had targeted the offices of Aspen Insurance because the company provided services to Israeli-linked defence firm Elbit Systems UK.- ‘Political prisoners’ -Thunberg on Monday described the detained hunger strikers as “political prisoners” in a video posted on Instagram.The British government in July outlawed Palestine Action after activists broke into an air force base and caused an estimated £7 million ($9.3 million) of damage.Some of the eight detainees who went on hunger strike had been charged over that incident.The group, aged between 20 and 31, are facing trials relating to break-ins or criminal damage by Palestine Action.Their hunger strike is to protest their treatment and call for their release on bail.The first two prisoners going on the hunger strike were into their 52nd day, Prisoners for Palestine said on Tuesday. The Guardian newspaper reported that three of the eight had ended their hunger strike.Asked about it in parliament last week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said “rules and procedures” were being followed.The government’s ban on Palestine Action — which makes being a member of the group or supporting it a serious criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison — has resulted in at least 2,300 arrests of demonstrators, according to protest organisers Defend Our Juries. According to London’s Met Police in late November, so far 254 out of the more than 2,000 arrested have been charged with a lesser offence which carries a sentence of up to six months.Thunberg has maintained a high profile in protests supporting Palestinians.In October, she was among hundreds of people who boarded a flotilla that tried to break through the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

When her children, trembling with fear, ask where the family can go to escape Israel’s continued bombardment in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis area, Umm Ahmed has no answer.In her small, devastated village near Khan Yunis city, recent Israeli drone and artillery strikes shattered the tenuous sense of peace delivered by a ceasefire that has largely held since October 10.Residents say the strikes have targeted neighbourhoods east of the so-called Yellow Line — a demarcation established under the truce between Israel and Hamas.The Israeli military says its troops are deployed in the area in accordance with the ceasefire framework, accusing Hamas militants of “crossing the Yellow Line and carrying out terrorist activities”.More than two years after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel sparked a devastating war, tens of thousands of Gazans still live in tents or damaged homes in these areas, where the Israeli army maintains control and operates checkpoints.Now, many fear being forced from their homes, compelled to move west of the Yellow Line.”We don’t sleep at night because of fear. The bombardments in the east are relentless,” said Umm Ahmed, 40.”My children tremble at every explosion and ask me, ‘Where can we go?’ And I have no answer.”Her home in Bani Suheila has been completely destroyed, yet the family has stayed, pitching a tent beside the ruins.”Staying close to our destroyed home is easier than facing the unknown,” Umm Ahmed said.Crossing the Yellow Line to Al-Mawasi, west of Khan Yunis, is not an option for them.There, makeshift camps stretch as far as the eye can see, housing tens of thousands of Palestinians who fled the fighting.”There is no place left for anyone there, and not enough food or water,” Umm Ahmed said, as Gaza remains trapped in a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.- ‘We will not leave’ -The Israeli military blames continued threats from Hamas militants for its actions in the area.”The IDF’s current operations in Gaza, and their deployment in the Yellow Line area in particular, are carried out to address direct threats from terrorist organisations in Gaza,” the Israeli military said in a statement to AFP.The war in Gaza began with Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 that resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Since the war began, more than 70,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The vast majority of Gaza’s more than two million residents were displaced during the war, many multiple times.A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October 10, though both sides regularly accuse each other of violations.Under the truce, Israeli forces withdrew to positions east of the Yellow Line.Earlier this month, Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir described the Yellow Line as the “new border line” with Israel.”The Yellow Line is a new border line — serving as a forward defensive line for our communities and a line of operational activity,” he said to reserve soldiers in Gaza.For Palestinian officials, the line is seen as a tool for permanent displacement.”The objective is to frighten residents, expel them from their areas, and force them west,” said Alaa al-Batta, mayor of Khan Yunis, denouncing the bombardments as “violations of the ceasefire agreement”.Mahmud Baraka, 45, from Khuzaa, east of Khan Yunis, described constant artillery fire and home demolitions in the area.”It feels like we are still living in a war zone,” he said.”Explosions happen as if they are right next to us. The objective of the occupation is clear: to intimidate us and drive us out, so the region is emptied.”For now, residents feel trapped between bombardment and displacement, uncertain how long they can endure.Despite the danger, Abdel Hamid, 70, refuses to leave his home located north of Khan Yunis, where he lives with his five children.”We will not leave… this is our land,” he said.”Moving would not be a solution, but yet another tragedy.”bur-az-tgg-jd-glp/ser